Ethan Newton may only be four weeks into his new role as the Parks and Recreation Director for the city of Covington, but he is no stranger to the community.

For nine years starting in 2004, Newton helped manage the aquatic center in Covington and had a lot of success, he said. By the end of his ninth year, he started looking for something new.

An opportunity arose in northern California managing a recreational center. He helped start the center and was there for about 2 1/2 years.

The last six months of his time was spent as the executive director.

Newton decided to leave California because there wasn’t as much growth as there is in Covington, he said. The area was geographically large, but it was rural and they had to spread the programs out more. The growth wasn’t really happening.

“When you look at Covington, there is a lot of growth, it is very vibrant.” Newton said. “We have some great and interesting programs going on, so that was quite appealing.”

Being in Covington a total of 15 years before moving to California, he became familiar with the culture and the area. He knew it would be great to join the staff here again, he said.

The hardest part has been trying to absorb all of the information he can and trying to get up to speed with everything that has happened in the years he was gone.

“It feels like I have had amnesia for two years because I’m familiar with Covington, but there is a time gap that is missing,” Newton said.

With his new role, Newton plans to sit tight for a while with the position, he said. A lot of projects are coming up which will be keeping him busy for the foreseeable future. He is most excited about the Covington Community Park.

When he left two years ago, phase one was completed and now they’re going to finish design work for phase two and he hopes to be starting construction of the park when that is completed.

Another projects he is working on is some land acquisitions preparing for south Covington Park and it would be done in conjunction with the town plaza.

He is very fond of how strong the programs in Covington are, including the programs at the aquatic center.

The only issue with the aquatic center is the aging building. The building is close to 40 years old and while they continue to run a large number of events, there are some questions as to how long they can keep a facility that old going, Newton said. Especially with the amount of events and the amount of people served.

With all of the projects he is working on, one of the biggest challenges he faces is funding. A lot of needs have been identified and there’s a lot of good ideas as to how to address those needs but the challenge is how do they pay for those.

“I think that’s going to be some significant work of how do we best tailor the funding levels that we have?” Newton said.

Newton said is very happy to be back in Covington because the best part about his job is the people he works with and is surrounded by. He is excited to be in this position and seeing all of the projects and ideas come to life.